XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Discussions about everything, SMR related or not.
XDemonX
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:28 am
Location: Highland
Contact:

XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by XDemonX »

Change List

Idea of this thread is to discuss ideas for changes I think would improve the game. Some of these are not fully my ideas and some were discussed in other threads and in IRC with other players. This is to get them into the light a bit more and combine into one thread to be discussed. The hope of this is to maybe pull a few of these into the coding list for Astax to take care of now that we have someone wanting to help the game.

Introduction of Multis

Yes, that is right. I want players to have access to have multis. Jouldax has been working on this idea so he may have better ideas of how to do this, but after talking to him this is the vision I see.

On each player's account, they will have the option to create another character for a live game. They will have a main account and support account. This will all be under 1 login. To access the other account, you have to access it from the play game screen. Could be a simple drop down or radio button you select before you hit play game so you are entering the game under that character. This is to prevent people from playing both characters at the same time. Stats will still be recorded but at reduced rates for the support account. These are just draft figures:

Support Account Stats Gains(HoF only not actual in game gains):
Experience Gain: 50%
Kills Gain: 50%
Deaths: 100%
Experience Loss from dumping goods: 200%

Experience/Kills are lowered to not make it neccesary to use the support character but it still makes it encouraging. Deaths are at 100% because I don't want people being wreckless with their support account or let their friends kill it to pad stats on their main. Experience loss from dumping goods is to discourage using the account to slave or only pump goods. There is still way to use the support account to slave/pump but it will just take a little more effort and not be as effective.

The idea of this being is to increase activity in the game and throughout the day. This will make alliances stronger as well because people can use their support account for alliance work such as, stocking, building, mining, clearing, trading cash, ect. They can use their main account for being top experience, hunting, opping ect. If you have ever been a leader of a alliance or utility player, you know there is not much glory in it. I can't name the amount of times I have seen players like JJ, Bouncer, Hugh do the labor of stocking planets, refreshing forces ect that is boring and usually no glory in it. This will give them an opportunity to do both and will get people trying new stuff they haven't before just because they will have an account to do it in.

There can be some possible restrictions on the support account such as, support accounts cannot buy top racials or the top neutral ships (FU/DC). This is to prevent opping to be escalated to "Okay guys use 600 turns on support, then 600 turns on main in top racials". Having this restriction, will also force people to use other ships that don't get much use to do "support" activities.

This will also create more trading activity as there will be a lot more people using their support account to trade. If there is a player who wants to trade #1 experience, they can use their support account to pump goods into their route, or maybe even go lay some light mines around the route for protection before their main account trades. There are a lot of possibilities for uses for this support account. People will also be able to try maybe a different race than they usually. Would.

Other Possible Restrictions:
- Support Account will have same character name as main account with identifier next to it to show it is a support acount. This is to prevent people from using their support account as a spy in another alliance. *Possible to have support account be linked to the main account so if you join an alliance, your support account joins also. Need disucssion on this.

- You cannot attack your support account. Need some of restriction that doesn't allow you to trigger on your support account. This is to prevent from getting kills/experience off of your support account to your main account.

Again, a lot of this is Jouldax's idea. This might not run exactly in line with what he is thinking but just a rough draft of possibility. Overall, there is little to no cons to this idea. It does not force anyone to use the support account but it definitely rewards people for activity which is what we want, provide more action in the game.

Introduction of Premium Donation Packs

Donations are always needed. More donations = more improvements in the game as well as much needed advertising to attract more players.

*Name Highlighter - 50 credits - Entire game
- Pick from a list of colors to choose the color your character's name shows up as In sector and on current player list

*Turn Nitro - 10 credits - 24h cooldown
-Instantly gain 10 hours worth of turns

*Turn Turbo - 30 credits - Entire Game
-Increase turns per hour by 10%. Note: You LOSE your booster if you change ships or get podded

*Pod Screen Customization - 30 Credits - Entire Game
-Add an image and message to your enemies when you send them home in a pod

*Donator Pack - 100 per game or if you buy a subcription it is $5 per month.
-Increase maximum turns by 100. Recieve fully explored maps of your racial galaxy as soon as you join a new game. 10% reduction in racial ship costs.

*Reset Character - 50 Credists - Once per game
-Resets experience ,turns, alignment, relations and cash to 0, and gives you ability to select a new race. To purchase this, you must be at the headquarters of the new race you want to select.

****Needs disucssion to add more ideas and to discuss current ones.








More to come.
This is a beat, you just can't touch.....
Image
Incognito
Quiet One
Posts: 397
Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 11:59 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Contact:

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by Incognito »

I'd like some more dynamics to federal protection, like restricting protection only to ships classified as a trader or utility.

For combat, the Attack buttons should be grouped my alliance, with all enemies on one side and all allies on the right.
I+N+C+O+G+N+I+T+O=Not you

I took a calculated risk. Unfortunately, I am bad at math.
jouldax
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 582
Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 3:38 pm

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by jouldax »

very sound ideas, bouncer. I'll add to the ongoing proposed changes list.
XDemonX
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:28 am
Location: Highland
Contact:

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by XDemonX »

Revised Multi Idea:

For implementing this faster, this way will require no coding, but will require more work from the admin team.

Here are the rules that will need to be implemented to allow multis.

1) Each player will be allowed 1 extra account
2) Account name will have to be identical to the main account but with a "2" next to it. Ex) XDemonX is my main account. XDemonX2 is my multi account.
3) In-game name MUST be identical to the main account (Same example as above). This is to make it easier for admins as well as other people find and identify foul play.
4) Your multi must be in the same alliance as you. This is to prevent using the account to spy or to feed kills to your alliance/you.
5) You CANNOT kill your multi. This shouldn't be an issue as long as the above rule is enforced.
6) Multi-boxing is not allowed. If admins see account activity from both accounts with similar move times the account will be banned.*(see below)

Breaking any of these rules will result in the multi account being banned for the rest of the game.

*This needs to be discussed. I strongly think multi-boxing should NOT be allowed as this will essentially just double the power of soemones account. I am not sure if admin features has the ability to see movement times and such but it will have to watch for same second movements...but there needs to be discussion as if we should even allow people to use the accounts at the same time. 10 person ops can easily turn into 20 person ops which could be interesting because the entire fleet would be moving pretty slow and counter ops could get interesting.
This is a beat, you just can't touch.....
Image
XDemonX
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:28 am
Location: Highland
Contact:

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by XDemonX »

Incognito wrote:I'd like some more dynamics to federal protection, like restricting protection only to ships classified as a trader or utility.

For combat, the Attack buttons should be grouped my alliance, with all enemies on one side and all allies on the right.
I like the idea of dynamic federal protection. This would solve the problem of people opping from fed because they will have to eat the cost of switching out of their top racial everytime.

For the combat change, I think this should be very very low priority would be something nice to have but I think a lot other changes are much more important. There are already color change differences I know people still examine their own allies when in a panic trying to get a trigger but that is what adds a little more challenge to the whole process (also, if the buttons are at the certain spots... macros/scripts would be stupidly simple to make)
This is a beat, you just can't touch.....
Image
Aendar
Quiet One
Posts: 58
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:07 am

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by Aendar »

XDemonX wrote:Revised Multi Idea:


6) Multi-boxing is not allowed. If admins see account activity from both accounts with similar move times the account will be banned.*(see below)

Breaking any of these rules will result in the multi account being banned for the rest of the game.

*This needs to be discussed. I strongly think multi-boxing should NOT be allowed as this will essentially just double the power of soemones account. I am not sure if admin features has the ability to see movement times and such but it will have to watch for same second movements...but there needs to be discussion as if we should even allow people to use the accounts at the same time. 10 person ops can easily turn into 20 person ops which could be interesting because the entire fleet would be moving pretty slow and counter ops could get interesting.
thats really my biggest concern. Logging in with both accounts and play them together. I have two computers at home and i'm pretty good ith both hands. If the rules would allow me to, I would make a multi and play both at the same time. It would add a new level of skills but people who do have the advantage of two computers and feel comfortable playing with both hands, can do some nasty things. I'm thinking stuff like getting one account onto trading, 2nd account in a good hunter/raiding ship all geared up. Or just a ship with lots of mines to lay em quickly on the trade route and off you go. This would make trading pretty easy.

For hunting, you need both mouse and the other hand to shoot. So getting in with two ships at the trader who is consistingly using two ships (as he can play only with hotkeys) is in a real advantage there. And if needed, the trader leaves his back-up ship behind and flees with the trader.

As for opping, well, maybe we should decide first how to prevent "easy" busts with 8-9 people before we even think of doubling those numbers ;-)
XDemonX
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:28 am
Location: Highland
Contact:

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by XDemonX »

Aender,

Multiboxing only needs one computer. What it does is overlays 2 browsers so whenever you click on 1, you click on the other.. instantly. So it would be like everything you do has double the impact. So you might be putting in a lot more skill and effort to use 2 hands to play.. other people like me, would just take the easy way and download the multibox program and be much more effective as i'll always have 2 ships doing the same exact thing at the same exact time.

There are a lot of issues with this that will come afloat. I would prefer this to be done via coding but any coding changes won't happen in the current version.
This is a beat, you just can't touch.....
Image
JettJackson
Fledgling Spam Artist
Posts: 3572
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:38 am
Location: Eastpointe MI

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by JettJackson »

XDemonX wrote:Revised Multi Idea:

For implementing this faster, this way will require no coding, but will require more work from the admin team.

Here are the rules that will need to be implemented to allow multis.

1) Each player will be allowed 1 extra account
2) Account name will have to be identical to the main account but with a "2" next to it. Ex) XDemonX is my main account. XDemonX2 is my multi account.
3) In-game name MUST be identical to the main account (Same example as above). This is to make it easier for admins as well as other people find and identify foul play.
4) Your multi must be in the same alliance as you. This is to prevent using the account to spy or to feed kills to your alliance/you.
5) You CANNOT kill your multi. This shouldn't be an issue as long as the above rule is enforced.
6) Multi-boxing is not allowed. If admins see account activity from both accounts with similar move times the account will be banned.*(see below)

Breaking any of these rules will result in the multi account being banned for the rest of the game.

*This needs to be discussed. I strongly think multi-boxing should NOT be allowed as this will essentially just double the power of soemones account. I am not sure if admin features has the ability to see movement times and such but it will have to watch for same second movements...but there needs to be discussion as if we should even allow people to use the accounts at the same time. 10 person ops can easily turn into 20 person ops which could be interesting because the entire fleet would be moving pretty slow and counter ops could get interesting.
There is a feature in the admin tools that allows tracking of this, it would be monitored daily on these accounts. It is fairly simple to track and easy to notice multi-boxing. I agree that it needs to not be able to be used, this would need to be precisely outlined in the rule change and subsequent penalties be inflicted.
Lead: Sesame Street, Rogue Squad

Co-Lead: Suckas, Black Sun Ascending, Wraith Squadron, Fool's Errend, Team Poker, The Phantom Order, Toxic #5

Member of: Team Pup and Suds, Nintendo Power, System Failure, Crusaders, new dawn, Cereal Killers, Armory, Armory V2, _-=`Perfection`=-_, The Guild, Ragnarok, Heimdall, United Rebels, ilLegitimate Basterds

I've seen and done it all
JettJackson
Fledgling Spam Artist
Posts: 3572
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:38 am
Location: Eastpointe MI

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by JettJackson »

XDemonX wrote:Aender,

Multiboxing only needs one computer. What it does is overlays 2 browsers so whenever you click on 1, you click on the other.. instantly. So it would be like everything you do has double the impact. So you might be putting in a lot more skill and effort to use 2 hands to play.. other people like me, would just take the easy way and download the multibox program and be much more effective as i'll always have 2 ships doing the same exact thing at the same exact time.

There are a lot of issues with this that will come afloat. I would prefer this to be done via coding but any coding changes won't happen in the current version.
A code change that could be implemented would be a cooldown period between the accounts of 30 minutes. That could eliminate multiboxing in a hardline fashion. I don't think it would be necessary though with what I outlined above.
Lead: Sesame Street, Rogue Squad

Co-Lead: Suckas, Black Sun Ascending, Wraith Squadron, Fool's Errend, Team Poker, The Phantom Order, Toxic #5

Member of: Team Pup and Suds, Nintendo Power, System Failure, Crusaders, new dawn, Cereal Killers, Armory, Armory V2, _-=`Perfection`=-_, The Guild, Ragnarok, Heimdall, United Rebels, ilLegitimate Basterds

I've seen and done it all
XDemonX
Newbie Spam Artist
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:28 am
Location: Highland
Contact:

Re: XDemonX's Continuous Update Discussion

Post by XDemonX »

JettJackson wrote:
XDemonX wrote:Aender,

Multiboxing only needs one computer. What it does is overlays 2 browsers so whenever you click on 1, you click on the other.. instantly. So it would be like everything you do has double the impact. So you might be putting in a lot more skill and effort to use 2 hands to play.. other people like me, would just take the easy way and download the multibox program and be much more effective as i'll always have 2 ships doing the same exact thing at the same exact time.

There are a lot of issues with this that will come afloat. I would prefer this to be done via coding but any coding changes won't happen in the current version.
A code change that could be implemented would be a cooldown period between the accounts of 30 minutes. That could eliminate multiboxing in a hardline fashion. I don't think it would be necessary though with what I outlined above.
Good point JJ. As long as possibly you or someone else is willing to put in the effort to monitor this I don't think it will be an issue.
This is a beat, you just can't touch.....
Image
Post Reply